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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873567">Insatiable Curiosity</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageKing17/pseuds/MageKing17'>MageKing17</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fuuinjutsu, Gen, Metaphysics, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:53:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873567</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageKing17/pseuds/MageKing17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>If there's one thing Minato can't stand, it's having a seal written out in front of him and <em>not</em> knowing what it does.</p><p>Unfortunately, Shikako is quite certain that if he fully understands this seal, he'll never be able to use the Hiraishin again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Namikaze Minato &amp; Nara Shikako</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>463</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2020 A, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Insatiable Curiosity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/KonMichie/gifts">KonMichie</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/18668851">A Matter of Metaphysics</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageKing17/pseuds/MageKing17">MageKing17</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I took one look at Request 3 and went, "Minato &amp; Shikako? Well, my heart craves it now, too." So here's a thousand words of that.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"What is this section for?" Minato asked, his bafflement clear.</p><p>"Uh," Shikako replied, smartly, and began thinking very quickly.</p><p>Because if she <em>actually</em> explained the purpose of that section of the seal, it could have a profound impact on the timeline and possibly cause a time paradox that would rip the universe apart.</p><p>"That, uh..." Shikako quickly decided to go for a half-truth instead of the whole truth, "that section is basically a crutch; it's completely outside of your original design, so you don't have to worry about it."</p><p>Minato gave her a look that said, 'You're bullshitting so obviously that I can't even be bothered to explicitly call you on it.' Shikako has become uncomfortably familiar with that look, over the past week.</p><p>"Please don't ask me to explain it in detail," she pleaded.</p><p>Minato glanced back to the diagram spread across the desk Shikako had pulled out of hammerspace for them to work on. "Did somebody else design it...?"</p><p>"No," Shikako clarified, trying desperately to think of a way to make him stop thinking about the design of the most obvious difference between the original seal and her latest iteration. "It's my own design, but it's also not something you'd have to worry about normally; and if you did worry about it, it would probably break your version."</p><p>Minato blinked. "<em>Break</em> my version?"</p><p>"<em>Please</em> stop asking questions about it." Shikako was now contemplating trying to bribe the future Fourth Hokage to make him stop thinking about this specific piece of fuuinjutsu. It probably wouldn't work, but depending on the bribe, it might distract him long enough to save the timeline.</p><p>Minato gave her a searching look. "You seem quite convinced that my learning how this section works would have disastrous consequences."</p><p>Shikako grimaced. "You could say that."</p><p>"But how could that...?" Minato trailed off, thoughtful.</p><p><i>Fuck,</i> Shikako thought. <i>He's now thinking about how thinking about this could be disastrous, which means he might stumble across what it actually does.</i></p><p>"...Of course!" Minato declared, making Shikako wince. "It's a targeting boundary, but the boundary is the world itself; yet how could there be anything outside the world...?"</p><p>"Fuck," Shikako said, banging her head on the desk. That'll teach her to experiment with a teleportation technique without remembering to include temporal coordinates.</p><p>Minato blinked. "Are... are you from another world...?"</p><p>"No," Shikako groaned, even as a part of her whispered, <i>Yes.</i> "At least, I don't think so." The history of this time <em>seemed</em> to match up with history as she knew it in the future, but parallel universes weren't necessarily obvious.</p><p>"Then why add this section, and why would thinking about it be dangerous?"</p><p>Shikako sighed. "I told you; it's a crutch. It's not something you'd normally have to worry about. If you keep worrying about it," she added with a pointed glare, "the consequences could be <em>profoundly</em> bad."</p><p>Minato glared at the diagram, which seemed like the opposite of not worrying about it. "You don't add a boundary condition 'just in case'; you do it because without it, there's a chance you could—"</p><p>He broke off with a gasp and Shikako groaned. <i>Save me from sealing masters who are literally too curious for their own good.</i></p><p>"Another Konoha, with its own Hiraishin seals, which are just as valid destination points as the local versions!" He seemed disgustingly pleased with himself for having ruined all of history. "So why haven't I ever wound up at such a—? Oh."</p><p>"Yeah, 'oh'," Shikako grumbled.</p><p>"Naturally," Minato continued, as calm as though they weren't doomed the moment the universe noticed the paradox, "as I never considered the possibility before, it <em>wasn't</em> a possibility, until I considered it. Now that I have, all of my existing seals are useless to me. Hence why you said it would break my version; of course."</p><p>Shikako glared at him. "Happy now?"</p><p>Minato looked up at her. "...Yes, actually. Not knowing was <em>killing</em> me."</p><p>"Well," she said, rolling her eyes, "when the time paradox caused by your inability to leave well enough alone destroys the universe, at least we'll cease to exist knowing that your curiosity was satisfied."</p><p>Minato snorted. "Oh please; you think I developed the Hiraishin without figuring out how to avoid a time paradox?"</p><p>Shikako blinked. Then, for good measure, she blinked again. "What."</p><p>"I mean, <em>naturally</em> I made the same mistake as you at the start—" he began, but Shikako cut him off with a frustrated shriek.</p><p>"You've already <em>done</em> this before!?" she fumed, reminding herself that murdering the Fourth before he could become the Fourth would be at least as bad of a time paradox as taking away the Yellow Flash's ability to use the Hiraishin. "Then why did I spend the past week coming up with a solution from scratch?!"</p><p>"Well, obviously," Minato said in the tone of voice that Shikako had learned meant he was about to say something that wasn't obvious at all, "I wanted to see what solution you'd come up with; it was completely different from mine, after all. Plus, it was a profound learning experience for me, and I wouldn't want to prevent an up-and-coming seal mistress from experiencing it herself."</p><p>Shikako convinced herself then and there that, after she explained the situation to him, Naruto would probably forgive her for murdering his dad. She had no worries about how Sasuke might take it; if he were here, he'd probably <em>help</em>.</p><p>"Anyway," Minato continued, blithely disregarding the Killing Intent that Shikako had started leaking, "before I returned to the right time, I developed a seal that would suppress targeted memories until a certain amount of time had passed."</p><p>Shikako just stared at him for a good couple of seconds. "You invented a <em>memory suppression seal</em> to fix your <em>accidental time travel</em>."</p><p>"It seemed like the simplest solution," Minato said, smiling a smile that was painfully reminiscent of his son.</p><p>"Well," Shikako demurred, thinking furiously, "it <em>might</em> prevent a world-ending paradox from eating us all."</p><p>"That's the spirit!"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Kinda-sorta omake: when she leaves, Kakashi walks in and goes, "She's finally gone? Good. She gave me the creeps; I hope I never see her again." Minato laughs at him and then slaps the memory-seal on him. Back in the future, Kakashi wakes up suddenly remembering this incident and just goes, "...Well played, Sensei."</p></blockquote></div></div>
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